Back from TOKEN2049 in Dubai (and surviving some of the worst flooding in UAE recorded history), a few topics really stood out in my conversations 👇 :
1/ RWA is top of mind for everyone in the region. Stablecoins clearly have the best PMF in crypto, which are essentially tokenized digital dollars backed by treasuries, but the region is VERY focused on a much longer tail of asset classes. Everyone from the regulators to the financiers and the entrepreneurs are focused on how to provide broader access and more liquid markets to commodities, forex and compute.
2/ AI (and AIxCrypto) is still top of mind for everyone, but there is more distrust of the topic today than there has been several quarters. Most projects and businesses talking about AI are simply nonsense and people are starting to catch on. The market is about to very saturated with a lot of hyped up but mostly non-working tokens for projects doing some variation of on-chain inference, ML, distributed compute, data provenance, etc.
3/ BTC ecosystem is THE main focus in much of Asia - they just don't care that much about ETH / EVM ecosystem the same way we do in the west. And many of the largest BTC holders in the world are the either currently or formerly based BTC miners in and around China.
4/ There is A LOT of excitement for alternative L1s Monad Labs, Berachain, and TON Foundation - expect to see a lot of these names
5/ SocialFI is coming and investors and builders alike want it to work. Being able to combine social networks and coordination with fun experiences and add financial incentives has the potential to upend traditional social. Businesses like Fantasy Top, FriendTech and Farcaster are top of mind.
6/ Gaming continues to be top of mind for many builders, but it's clear investors interest is waning
7/ Regulation - it's clear to everyone that there is global regulatory arbitrage happening and geographies like the UAE want to capitalize on that. They will continue to court the biggest crypto companies with a clearer regulatory framework and better tax / employment incentives. Eastern Europe trying to do the same to some extent vis a vis the US, and now you see it in HK with the ETH ETFs
The US is falling behind, and it risks permanently driving innovation offshore.